Hello.
I've been collecting SEGA model series boards for a long time.
The model board is a board made nearly 30 years ago, so I've been thinking about how to preserve it for a long time.
I've found that a kind of "rechargeable battery" that exists to hold data in NVRAM's volatile memory, called a "supercapacitor", leaks, causing the board to fail completely.
(It's not my case. This is a picture I found on the internet.)
Once a leak occurs, the pattern on the board will rust and fail, making it nearly impossible to fix. It's like a time bomb.
The supercapacitor in the picture above is the supercapacitor used on the boards such as System 32, Model 1, and Model 2.
Because this supercapacitor is many times older than its own lifespan, I thought it wouldn't be strange if something like that happened,
so I decided to remove the supercapacitor from the boards I had.
(In order to remodel the FRAM after removing the super capacitor, remove the existing NVRAM (IC19, IC20) and plant a socket.)
After removing the supercapacitor, the fear of leakage disappeared, but NVRAM data was not maintained.
So, I tried modifying the FRAM to keep the NVRAM data even without the battery.
I used an FM1808 of the same size as the RAM used in the original NVRAM, and a dip to soic adaptor made by Cloudree(클랴).
By making this modification, completely free from the fear of leakage of the super capacitor and completed Model 1 in which the NVRAM data is permanently maintained even when the electricity is turned off.
In VF1, records the last played round and high score in NVRAM. It felt so good to see that the replay were not erased even after a few weeks after turning the power off.
If freezing occurs after modification, it will be solved by putting a small capacitor between 5V and GND of FRAM(PIN28, PIN14).
P.s
There is another peculiarity, In the VF1 arcade version, there is an Easter egg that Kagemaru's mask will come off after playing over 3000 times.
I've seen Kagemaru's face with the mask removed in the Saturn version, but I've never seen it in the VF1 of the Model 1 version. But, strangely, if you install a blank memory with no data after FRAM modification, the mask of Kage comes off only for the first stage 1 (JACKY).
I think it's probably the only Model 1 version Kagemaru un-masked shot that exists on the internet.
I've been collecting SEGA model series boards for a long time.
The model board is a board made nearly 30 years ago, so I've been thinking about how to preserve it for a long time.
I've found that a kind of "rechargeable battery" that exists to hold data in NVRAM's volatile memory, called a "supercapacitor", leaks, causing the board to fail completely.
(It's not my case. This is a picture I found on the internet.)
Once a leak occurs, the pattern on the board will rust and fail, making it nearly impossible to fix. It's like a time bomb.
The supercapacitor in the picture above is the supercapacitor used on the boards such as System 32, Model 1, and Model 2.
Because this supercapacitor is many times older than its own lifespan, I thought it wouldn't be strange if something like that happened,
so I decided to remove the supercapacitor from the boards I had.
(In order to remodel the FRAM after removing the super capacitor, remove the existing NVRAM (IC19, IC20) and plant a socket.)
After removing the supercapacitor, the fear of leakage disappeared, but NVRAM data was not maintained.
So, I tried modifying the FRAM to keep the NVRAM data even without the battery.
I used an FM1808 of the same size as the RAM used in the original NVRAM, and a dip to soic adaptor made by Cloudree(클랴).
By making this modification, completely free from the fear of leakage of the super capacitor and completed Model 1 in which the NVRAM data is permanently maintained even when the electricity is turned off.
In VF1, records the last played round and high score in NVRAM. It felt so good to see that the replay were not erased even after a few weeks after turning the power off.
If freezing occurs after modification, it will be solved by putting a small capacitor between 5V and GND of FRAM(PIN28, PIN14).
P.s
There is another peculiarity, In the VF1 arcade version, there is an Easter egg that Kagemaru's mask will come off after playing over 3000 times.
I've seen Kagemaru's face with the mask removed in the Saturn version, but I've never seen it in the VF1 of the Model 1 version. But, strangely, if you install a blank memory with no data after FRAM modification, the mask of Kage comes off only for the first stage 1 (JACKY).
I think it's probably the only Model 1 version Kagemaru un-masked shot that exists on the internet.
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